Portable cooking appliances, such as stoves, are used all over the world in many environments. For example, people who enjoy camping, boating, sailing, or traveling by RV desire a small, portable stove for preparing meals while in transit or in a location that is remote from any working kitchen. Portable stoves take the form of electric, induction, gas-burning, etc. depending on, for example, whether the stove is mounted in a vehicle such as an RV or boat.
When meals are being prepared in a moving vehicle, such as a boat or RV, there is a significant danger that a cooking vessel being used on the stove may slide off of the stove and create a spill or other dangerous condition. (In the present application, a “cooking vessel” means any pot, pan, or other device used to hold or contain food to be heated or cooked). Such a dangerous condition may also occur if the stove is used on an uneven or excessively soft surface, such as one that may be encountered while camping. For this reason, portable stoves are often equipped with a device or system intended to prevent or reduce unwanted movement of the cooking vessels. Many such devices are known in the prior art, but these devices are excessively complicated to manufacture, assemble, and use.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,379,206 to Westlake discloses a means for holding cooking vessels on galley stoves that includes arms mounted on bars that are mounted on a rail. The arms are intended to partially wrap around a cooking vessel, and are designed with varying shapes and lengths. The position of the arms is set by means of wing nuts. The complexity and difficulty of use of the Westlake system is apparent, however, from FIG. 1. Not only must a user of the system adjust the position of the arms relative to one another, but the user must adjust the position of the bar relative to the rail and cooking vessels both in latitude and longitude with respect to the stove.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,575,445 to Kozdas discloses a system for use with a conventional stove in which a clamping device for grasping the handle of a cooking vessel is provided. The system utilizes claws mounted on a collar that is in turn slidably mounted on a vertical support member. The claws are curved and spring biased for clamping onto the handle of a cooking vessel. The mounting collar may be locked into position on the support member by a pressure fit system, a cam system, or a screw-type system. The support member is attached to a rail mounted along the side of the stove. Again, however, the system is complicated and relatively difficult to use. In order to secure a single cooking vessel, the position of the support member on the rail must be adjusted, the position of the mounting collar on the support member must be adjusted, and the positions of the claws must be adjusted.
Clearly, the devices known from the prior art for reducing the amount of unwanted movement of cooking vessels on a portable stove are excessively complicated and difficult to use. This excessive complication and difficulty of use serves to discourage use of the devices, even on stoves that are equipped with them, thereby perpetuating the unsafe condition the devices were intended to alleviate.
Thus, what is needed is a simple but effective device for reducing the amount of unwanted movement of a cooking vessel on a stove. The device should be simple to manufacture, simple to install, and simple to use. The device should be inexpensive, but should not detract significantly from the aesthetic value of the stove with which it is associated.